30 ATHERINID/E I SILVERSIDES 



25. Atherion maccullochi Jordan and Hubbs, 1919.^*- 



Atherion maccullochi Jordan and Hubbs, new species. 



Type-locality. — Lord Howe Island. 

 Range. — Lord Howe Island, east of Australia. 



Holotype. — A specimen 49 mm. long to caudal base, from Lord Howe 

 Island ; received from Mr. Allan R. McCulloch. Two paratypes, 45 mm. 

 long, from the type locality, are also at hand. All are deposited in the 

 collections of Stanford University. 



The Atherion of Lord Howe Island is closely related to A. elymus 

 of Japan. It differs from that species principally in the somewhat smaller 

 size of the scales. 



Body slender and compressed; the depth, greatest through the pec- 

 toral fins, contained 6.4 times in total length to caudal; least depth of 

 caudal peduncle about three-fourths length of head. Belly rather nar- 

 rowly flattened transversely. Length of head, 4.4 (about 4.2 in para- 

 types) ; head formed as in A. elymus, rounded anteriorly, convex in 

 cross section dorsally; dorsal contour slightly depressed behind end of 

 premaxillary processes ; tip of premaxillaries slightly above horizontal 

 passing through middle of eye. Mouth very oblique and small, the 

 upper jaw not extending to below front of eye, its length 3.6; eye, 3; 

 snout, 4. Rami of mandibles elevated within the mouth. Teeth of the 

 jaws small, but less minute than in some species of Atherina, arranged 

 in a single series, which is apparently followed near front of jaws by 

 small teeth ; fine teeth also evident on the vomer, behind which the roof 

 of the mouth is lined with rows of fine, apparently edentulous, granu- 

 lations. Gill-rakers slender, serrulate on inner edge, about half as long 

 as eye, 3 -f 13 in number. The head is partly covered with finely 

 spinulose ridges, as in A. elymus. The maxillary is covered with these 

 fine spinules, and there are several series on the mandible ; a series below 

 eye; others covering the preopercular ridge, the lower surface of the 

 preopercle below the ridge, and the exposed surface of the interopercle ; 

 a row of several series on superior orbital rim, and several series on the 

 sides of the snout. 



Scale rows, 47-7 (43-7 in A. elymus), 20 to 22 from first dorsal 

 to occiput (16 in A. elymus) ; a few large scales on opercle, and a row 

 on the suborbital. Scales from the sides of the body about twice as deep 

 as long, with entire edges, and without circuli on the exposed field. 



Fin-rays : dorsal, IV, 10 or 11 ; anal, I, 15 or 16 (I, 14 anal rays count- 

 ed in the type and two paratypes of A. elymus). Origin of spinous dorsal 

 equidistant from base of caudal and middle of snout; length of first 

 dorsal when depressed about 1.5 times the interspace between the de- 

 pressed dorsals. Base of second dorsal extending from above the middle. 



